Interviews
‘Suitable Flesh’ Director Joe Lynch on Honoring Stuart Gordon and Playing in the Lovecraft Universe [Interview]
Director Joe Lynch‘s (Wrong Turn 2, Mayhem, “Creepshow”) new movie Suitable Flesh, based on H.P. Lovecraft’s The Thing On The Doorstep, unleashed body-hopping madness last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, ahead of its theatrical release later this year from RLJE Films.
Barbara Crampton stars in Suitable Flesh, executive produced by Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator). Dennis Paoli, the writer of Re-Animator and From Beyond, wrote the script.
Joe Lynch and the late Stuart Gordon’s frequent collaborators seamlessly insert Suitable Flesh into Gordon’s Lovecraftian universe (our review). Bloody Disgusting spoke with the filmmaker at Tribeca, where he teased the Lovecraft connections for Gordon’s fans and the advice Brian Yuzna gave him when making the film.
Joe Lynch behind the scenes
Suitable Flesh exists within the same world of Re-Animator and From Beyond. Lynch breaks down horror’s original cinematic universe and how he kept his film accessible for those unfamiliar with Gordon’s films.
Lynch explains, “Lovecraft was one of the originators of an expanded universe. Being able to have different stories in the same hospital, so to speak. Like in Miskatonic or Arkham, and have all these tropes and all this different iconography that would jump from story to story, that made you feel like this was part of a bigger world. I always loved that idea. As a fan of Stuart’s work early on in Re-Animator, when From Beyond came out and characters are talking about Miskatonic, I’m like, ‘Wait a second, does that mean that Katherine from From Beyond was also in the same hospital as Herbert West? Were they crossing paths, in a way?’ I always thought that was really cool, and that was something that I always wanted to do in my own films, but in this one especially.”
“When I got the script for this when Barbara [Crampton] reached out and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in something like this?’… When it said Dennis Paoli, I immediately said, ‘Wait a second, holy crap,’ and it was Lovecraft. All right, there is an opportunity here,” Lynch continues. “On the first page, when you open the page, it says Miskatonic University; I got really excited over the possibilities of being able to make those connections. You don’t have to be a fan of Re-Animator or From Beyond, or even of all the different little Lovecraftian things we would put in, like five knocks, three and two, or all the little tiny hints to his work. You don’t need to be in the know, but those who are in the know would appreciate that we were trying to connect things together.
“I’ve always been fascinated with the world that Dennis and Brian Yuzna and Barbara and Mac Ahlberg, the DP of the original films, what they had created in Re-Animator. I always thought, ‘Well, what happened to Miskatonic years later?'”
Producer Brian Yuzna is no stranger to the goopy, gory world of Gordon’s Lovecraft horror. When asked if Yuzna offered any advice on making a Lovecraft horror feature, Lynch revealed a core mantra that he carried with him throughout production.
Lynch tells us, “To be honest, the only advice that he gave me was, ‘Just keep asking yourself ‘What would Stuart do?’ I wish I had a shirt, WWSD, and I used that every day on set if there was something where I felt like I was holding back too much or if there was a moment that felt like, ‘Could we find levity in this beat,’ or on the flip side, ‘Where do we make it hurt? Where do we feel like we’re going to piss some people off?’ That was an edict that I had every day, and that was something that came from Brian when we were sharing nachos that day.
“He just kept saying, ‘Just keep asking yourself, what would Stuart do,’ because he knew this project was near and dear to Stuart before he passed. That’s how it was presented to me, and I wanted to do right by him. I felt a little bit like that position that Spielberg was in when he was doing AI when Kubrick passed that project on to him. Even if I get one person to feel like this might have been something that Stuart’s spirit was infused in us, then I feel like we did our jobs right.“
Expect to hear a lot more on Suitable Flesh as it gears up for release later this year.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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